Questions and Answers from
Scott Zier
Director of "RECIPROCITY"

"We really wanted to go a new direction with Reciprocity. There have been a lot of excellent fan films set in the Star Wars mythos, what we wanted was to present the content from a new direction."

-Scott Zier
Director

When does Reciprocity take place?

Reciprocity takes place just after the clone wars, when it's conjectured that the purge of the Jedi is coming to an end. We feel that the purge involved a series of complex political and emotional events set in motion by Palpantine. Palpantine would have had to create a situation where he could remove the credibility of the Jedi, and at the same time turn various forces in the galaxy against them.

What is the plot?

The story revolves around the Inquisitors, a group of assassins trained to hunt and destroy the Jedi. The Inquisitors were force sensitive individuals, singled out by Palpantine as people he could control. I think that part of the draw to our story is that each Inquisitor is fighting for a different reason. Some are there for the money, some for revenge, and some are simply republic soldiers following orders from the senate.

It is important to realize that these Inquisitors were not Sith. The pure nature of the Sith, which is approached briefly in the film, really deters there from being more than two at a time. When creating the inquisitors, Palpantine was looking for people who could be trained to get the job done, but also people he knew he could dispose of quickly. The last thing he want's is a hundred Sith all vying for his position of power. To this end, he made sure to keep tight control over the minds and actions of the Inquisitors.

Reciprocity is about change, about situations and relationships turning inside out over and over again. This is seen on both a personal level with the Inquisitors, as well as a spiritual and political level (the Force and the Galaxy).

What kind of locations can we expect to see?

Reciprocity travels the galaxy showing some worlds that remain sympathetic to the plight of the Jedi, while others gladly assist in the hunt to gain favor with the Republic. While all of the action is going on, the subversion is mimicked through debates in the Republic Senate. Several scenes were shot on location, and those that didn't match a real world location were shot on our CG sets.

With the hunting of the Jedi as a premise, are there a lot of duels in Reciprocity?

One of the myths we try to dispel is that Jedi must be in some kind of climatic duel to be killed. In fact they die quite frequently in Reciprocity, usually by subtle means. A lot of the Star Wars novels tend to give the feeling that Jedi can sense any kind of danger and avoid it. This is far from the truth though. If Jedi could sense danger then Qui-Gon could have warned the people on his transport. Yoda could have figured out he was two feet from a Sith lord. What Jedi can sense is loss of life. We have seen this in a number of films. They also can have rare glimpses of the future. What all this means, is that a properly trained assassin using the force would have no problem sneaking up on a Jedi in his sleep, or during a moment of deep meditation.

How far are you in development?

We are in final post now, polishing up effects shots and working on the audio.

How long is the film?

The current cut runs about 42min. This really worried me at first, since it is very rare to see anything that long play over the internet, or in a small QuickTime window. However, the response from people who have viewed the film has been so positive that I don't think people will get bored with it.